I've been playing this song and watching this video a lot lately. It wasn't an initial favorite of mine when the album first dropped December 13, 2013, but I've since noticed a few things.
This might be the most important video in the entire BEYONCÉ visual album experience, and I hate that it doesn’t get enough credit from other fans and critics. I’m going to try to do it justice.
There are many important themes of BEYONCÉ, but the principal theme is the rejection of perfection so that automatically makes Angel the most important song on the album. If the album wasn’t called BEYONCÉ (which is perfect) this album could have easily been called Angel. There was this awesome post by a user on a fan forum I visit back when the album was first release detailing this song and saying why it was the most important and how the way Beyoncé sang the song highlighted how she is embracing imperfection. Since I am focusing on the visual aspect I’m going to try to evoke that same feeling for the visuals rather than the audio track.
Overall, my point with Angel is that Beyoncé takes one of the most marginalized group in American society and not just any type of African Americans, but specifically hood blacks- poor, ghetto, drug dealers, strippers etc. and is showing them in a non-judgmental and beautiful light. This is one video where she just completely disregarded respectability politics and that’s why I love it. This video was not about appeasing to a broad spectrum of people. It was about showing how the people in this community may be “no angel” in the general public's eyes, but they are beautiful people and worthy and living their lives and doing the best they can with the cards they’ve been dealt. This is also the only video besides Blue (which does a very similar thing with the people of Brazil) where Beyoncé is not the focus. She stays off to the side because she doesn’t want you to get distracted by her. Also, she’s not living in this community anymore so she’s no longer so connected to this but she is reminiscing. But she’s also saying I am them. This is where I came from so if you’re going to judge them then judge me too. “I’m no angel either baby.”
Ok so the first shot opens with the skyline of her hometown, Houston. And the video is largely just showing people going about their everyday lives. It’s kind of like early hip-hop videos in the way that it just takes you through "the hood".
While doing that, she’s also highlighting what’s unique about Houston:
Houston Rockets Jersey, grillz, candy paint on cars, famous Houston rappers, RIP shirts, school football team, the food, graffiti walls in memory, project homes, etc.
The cool thing is that the video doesn’t really glorify the community either. There’s no attitude like this is so cool or this is so sad/bad. It just is.
We see lots of fathers with their sons, mothers with their daughters, friends, a couple on a motorcycles. Beyoncé was specifically highlighting the sense of family and community that is alive and well in this neighborhood.
One of my favorite parts of the video is at the end with the strippers. I think it’s shot so beautifully and intercut with one of the ladies just laughing and smiling. There is no judgment here. And actually there’s a point made to show another woman collecting the money that the strippers make and she’s wearing a BOSS nameplate.
In her mini doc Yours and Mine when Beyoncé says “It all starts with if you can look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘I like that person, you know’”- she’s shows the part from Angel where one of the strippers is looking smug at the camera. Once again challenging our outdated beliefs and assumptions about what we think is a moral way of earning money or living your life.
Another important thing to note is that Beyoncé is not primarily shown to be in the hood with them. There are only two shots of her (in the living room and pumping gas) where’s she’s integrated into that space. This is signifying how she’s no longer living there with them, but she is there with them in spirit and she understands the community. She is mostly shown in an entirely different setting with a white picket fence behind her. She separates from them because she now has this "ideal" life.
In the majority of the shots Beyoncé is in, she is dressed high fashion and glamorous indicating her higher position of wealth, and she’s also wearing all white. In one shot she’s even wearing a white hat.
White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection. This is ironic, because this whole album is about Bey showing us that she isn’t perfect or an angel, but she’s in all white because that’s how the world sees her. That may even be how the people that live in 3rd and 4th Ward Houston, TX would see her now. She also wears a white hate which in a lot of early Western genre films were often work by heroes and blacks hats worn by villains to symbolize the contrast in good vs evil.
There’s also a shot of her holding a leash for a dog when she's in the all white. Dog symbolism is really important and relevant here.
Dog symbolism- List of Dog Meaning and Symbolism
· Fidelity
· Loyalty
· Assistance
· Intelligence
· Obedience
· Protection
· Community
· Cooperation
· Resourcefulness
· Communication
· Sensory Perception
She wants to be of assistance to her old neighborhood. She’s their ally and wants to protect. She constantly reps and shouts out Houston at award shows, in her music, and interview as a sign of her loyalty to where she grew up as well as does a lot of charity work with her childhood church.
The other notable aspect of Beyoncé’s appearance is that she is wearing pink lipstick. This stands out because in all the other videos she wears red or a nude colored lipstick. This color represents compassion, nurturing and love. It relates to unconditional love and understanding, and the giving and receiving of nurturing.
I also noticed Bey’s alone in all her shots in this video. It could signify that she’s alone at the top or maybe even represent a disconnected sense of community.
